A New Life
by hollie-whyte
Summary: Hermione is unceremoniously dumped into the past with no idea how she got there or who she can trust. She must find a way to build a new life there, while trying to find her way home.
1. Chapter 1

Harry and Ron could hear Hermione screaming as Bellatrix treated her to another round of the cruciatus curse, when the curse was finally lifted the screaming was replaced by Hermione's pleading with the Deatheater and her promises and assurances that they had never been to her Gringott's Vault, much less taken anything from it. She even made claims that the sword they'd been discovered with was a fake.

"We have to do something, Harry. She'll kill her if we don't stop her soon!"

"Do you think I don't know that, Ron? But what can we do? We're down stuck down here with no wands. Why don't you try and think of some way to save her?"

"Harry?" Harry sighed and turned to look at the girl,

"What is it Luna?"

"They're sending someone down to get Mr. Griphook to check the sword. I thought maybe you-"

"We could ambush them when they open the door! They'd never be expecting that!" Ron had an excited look on his face but Harry glared at him,

"They'd never be expecting it because they've realised that even we are not that stupid. That's a terrible idea!" Harry turned to the goblin, "You have to tell them the sword is a fake! They'll kill her if they know it's the real one. Please." They didn't know what the goblin had decided to do when Pettigrew dragged him back up the stairs, they were going to have to just wait and hope he was on their side.

~#~

Up in the drawing room Hermione was panicking, the Deatheaters were about to find out that she'd been lying to them; how was she to know they happened to have a goblin locked away in the cellar? There wasn't anything she could to but brace herself for the inevitable pain that was surely going to be coming in a matter of minutes. She heard Bellatrix say something at the other end of the room, there was a squeaky reply which she didn't hear properly; all she could hear was her heart beating wildly in her chest and the blood rushing in her ears. Suddenly the roaring in her ears stopped and she was alone in the room and the fire was lit but before she could even begin to comprehend what had just happened she lost consciousness.

The boys in the cellar stopped their feverish whispers as the noise from the room above them ceased, there were a few beats of absolute silence before they heard Bellatrix's booming voice "Where is she?" Harry's head snapped around to stare at the others in the room; surely he hadn't heard correctly but they all looked just as perplexed as he felt, before any of them could speak Bellatrix shouted again, "Where did she go? How did she escape?"

There was a lot of movement above them as the Deatheaters tired to find Hermione; it had been decided that she couldn't have moved past any of the wards as no alarms had sounded and she couldn't have apparated away from the manor as you needed to be outside of the wards. While the Deatheaters gathered in the drawing room spread out throughout the house to find the girl, back in the cellar Luna had pointed out to Harry that he was standing in a puddle, warning him about some water dwelling creature her father had just published an article about.

By the light of the deluminator they realised that it was blood. Harry smacked a hand to his forehead, "How could I forget about Sirius' mirror?! I've been seeing that eye in it all this time, whoever it is could send help!" Ron grinned at him and motioned for him to be quick. Once Harry had given their location the two boys crowded back to the door so they could hear what was happening upstairs better.

~#~

"It appears our young Miss Granger is a lot more capable than we gave her credit for, I can't detect her anywhere in the Malfoy grounds; she must have slipped through the wards somehow. What's most impressive is it's almost like she were never here to begin with, there is a no trace of her whatsoever." After Bellatrix's first shout Snape had crouched where the girl had been and started performing all sorts of complicated looking charms in order to discover where she had gone, but he hadn't had any luck and would soon need to depart to get back to Hogwarts before he was missed. Bellatrix glared at the man,

"The mudblood does not deserve any credit. When we find her, and we will, I will kill her for attempting to make a fool of me!"

"It seems that she has succeeded in that quest. Just be grateful your sister had the idea to question the goblin before sending for the Dark Lord. That could have been disastrous." Bellatrix stalked towards him,

"We still have _Potter_; he is who really matters after all."

~#~

When they'd first heard Snape's voice in the hall above them they'd both been ready to pull the heavy door off its hinges to get to him, but they had shared a grin when he said Hermione has escaped the wards. "That's our Hermione! Now we just have to worry about getting ourselves and Griphook out of here."

"Griphook? Why would we bother with him? He would have gotten her killed!"

"I think we're going to need him." A loud crack filled the air and Harry spun around to face the room, his hand automatically flying to the pocket which usually held his wand, "Dobby? What're you doing here?" Harry sounded a little incredulous to see the house elf standing before him, "Wait, can you apparate here?" Dobby nodded enthusiastically,

"Elf magic is different to wizard magic." Harry nodded grinning,

Dobby get those three out of here and come back for Ron and me." Dobby bowed and took Luna and Mr. Ollivander's hands and motioned for Dean to take Luna's other hand. The elf looked like he was just about to leave when Ron blurted out,

"Take them to Shell Cottage in Cornwall. They'll be safe there." Dobby nodded once more and the three were gone the next second. Harry looked more worried that excited; how were they going to manage to get Griphook and out of the Manor alive, with no wands?

~#~

There wasn't much time to think before Dobby was back with another loud crack, Harry's eyes narrowed; "Can you do that without the noise?"

"Oh, yes Harry Potter, when Dobby worked for the Malfoy family he never made a sound." Harry nodded looking thoughtful,

"Would you be able to go upstairs silently to see how many are up there? It'll be handy to know what we're up against." Dobby was gone and Harry smiled, "that's handy." Ron nodded his agreement with another grin.

When Dobby returned he looked pleased with himself, "Only the man with the silver hand and Dobby's old young master are there."

"The rest must be searching the house for Hermione. Did either of them see you?" Dobby shook his head, his ears flapping,

"Dobby made sure no one saw."

"Good, take us up there, as close to a wand as you can." Dobby nodded and took their hands.

~#~

They appeared silently behind Draco, who was standing guard over Griphook with his wand held loosely in his hand; Pettigrew was standing at the top of the cellar stairs guarding the door. Harry grabbed the wand out of Draco's hand and had stunned him before he had even turned around.

Pettigrew was startled by the sound of Draco's body slumping to the floor and his eyes widened when he saw Harry step towards him with a wand in his hand. "H- Harry, my dear boy. Your parents wouldn't want you to hurt me." Harry saw Pettigrew's wand inching towards his left forearm, where the dark mark was poking out of his shirtsleeves.

"I don't think so Peter. You owe me a life debt; you wouldn't want to be calling Tom tonight. Accio wands." Hermione and Ron's wands sped into his hand, along with the Pettigrew's and the one Ron had taken from the snatchers before he found them. It was good to have the spare, even if Draco's wand did seem to be working a lot better for him that the other had. Pettigrew seemed to be struggling to press a finger to his mark; his hand didn't seem to be cooperating with his wishes and was soon wrapped around his neck.

Harry turned away, not wanting to witness whatever was about to take place, but unwilling to stop it from happening. He joined Dobby and Ron over where Griphook was laying prone on the ground, picking up the sword along the way. "Let them know we're leaving Dobby, nice and loud." The crack they disappeared with was loud enough that it seemed to shake the walls of the manor.

~#~

Bellatrix, Lucius and Narcissa all abandoned their searches and ran full-speed back to the hall to find Draco on the floor in a heap, Pettigrew being choked by his own hand and the goblin and the sword both gone. Narcissa went straight to Draco and cast a quick enervate and thanked Merlin when his eyes fluttered open straight away, with a slightly sheepish look on his face. His aunt stooped down in front of him with her face close to his, "What happened here Draco?" her voice was unnaturally and unnervingly calm and he knew that was probably dangerous.

"I don't know, I was guarding the goblin and someone came up behind me, took my wand and stunned me. I didn't see anything though. It must have been Granger, maybe she just disillusioned herself and waiting until you were all gone. She's always been too smart for her own good! But now she's stuck here somewhere and we'll find her! Filthy little mudblood!"

Lucius had managed to stop the silver hand from killing Pettigrew, but only by casting a body bind and prising it away from the man's neck; he was almost certain that as soon as the spell was lifted the hand would continue. "His only chance is to keep him frozen until the Dark Lord comes, maybe he'll save his pet rat." Bellatrix stalked over to the two men,

"Mobilise his mouth, maybe he saw what happened here." Lucius did as his sister-in-law told him and Pettigrew took a few gasping breaths, filling his lungs with air again, "So Pettigrew, tell us what happened."

"Potter appeared out of nowhere and got Draco's wand, he was standing over the boy about to kill him so I tried to call the Dark Lord but he did something to my hand and disapparated with the Weasley boy, the goblin and the fake sword."

"The fake sword we never actually confirmed was a fake?!" Narcissa had started to speak at the same time as her sister,

"Why did you not do anything to stop the boy yourself, even if you had managed to call the Dark Lord he would never have gotten here in time before the boy disapparated. Draco could have been killed!" Bellatrix glared at her sister, clearly having more on her mind than the life of her only nephew. Narcissa could see that the rage building in her sister would soon become dangerous to her family if something wasn't done about it but bringing the Dark Lord would only make matters worse now that their prisoners had escaped. There was nothing she could do so she just looked down to the floor and didn't say another word as Bellatrix rounded on Pettigrew again.

~#~

Ron's brother Bill met them at the door to Shell Cottage, "I must say, I was expecting at least one of you to be injured."

"How are the others; we didn't really get to talk to them."

"Ollivander is exhausted, dehydrated and needs a good meal but other than that everyone's fine. Where's Hermione, she isn't..?"

"No, she got away somehow, before we did. She disappeared when they started to question Griphook. Snape said it was like she'd never even been there." Bill's eyebrows rose at the mention of Snape, and the excitement in his brother's voice while talking about his best friend being missing. The two younger boys told him the story with so much pride in their voices and grins on their faces that Bill couldn't find it in him to bring them down, Fleur didn't have such an issue as she listened with a frown on her pretty face,

"But where is Hermione now? How will she know where to find you? She does not know about this place." Harry's face dropped and his eyes widened; he'd never even thought of that.

"She'll think we're still at Malfoy Manor, what if she goes back there for us? They'll kill her for escaping, if not just because we managed to. She's already been under the cruciatus curse for so long. We have to find her!"

~#~

Dobby gasped as he entered the drawing room to light the fire; there was a girl sleeping in the middle of the room. He went as close to her as he dared, his master was away from the manor and the mistress hadn't told him that any guests were expected, not that they would have a guest sleep on the floor of the drawing room. He didn't know what to do, he wavered next to her for a few minutes before he made the decision to go and get the mistress. He appeared silently outside Narcissa's bedchamber and knocked before entering; she had already been woken by one of the female elves and was sitting up in her bed reading.

She looked up when the door opened and was surprised to see Dobby standing at the foot of her bed, he wasn't meant to be in this part of the house, "What is it? You know you are not supposed to be here." Dobby caught hold of one of his ears and tugged on it,

"Dobby is sorry, Mistress Malfoy but there is something he needs to tell you."

"Well, get on with it then."

"There is a girl- in the drawing room. Dobby thinks she is sleeping." Narcissa had set her book to one side and was getting out of bed,

"What do you mean? How could there possibly be a girl in the drawing room? We have wards on the house and grounds. Take me there." She placed her hand on the elf's shoulder and he apparated them back downstairs.

~#~

Narcissa gaped when she saw that Dobby had indeed found a girl asleep on the drawing room floor. She sank down next to the girl's head and waved her wand over the girl doing a simple diagnostic charm. "Go to Hogwarts and fetch Professor Snape, she's going to need a few potions in order for her to heal properly. I believe she has been put under the cruciatus curse for some length of time." Dobby nodded and disappeared straight away, returning minutes later with a disgruntled and slightly bleary looking Severus Snape."

"I do not appreciate being woken by house elves at this hour on a Saturday Narcissa. Your elf told me I was needed along with an array of healing potions, what's the matter?"

"This girl was found this morning, I believe she has been tortured."

"And you brought her here?" Narcissa shook her head,

"No, Severus, she was found here."

"A pretty young girl has been tortured and left in your drawing room, yet you sent for me rather than asking your husband about it." Narcissa pursed her lips into a tight line,

"I do not like what you are implying Severus, but in any case Lucius is out of the country this week so she in nothing to do with him. Now if you please, I do think this girl needs some help." Severus rolled his eyes and knelt down on the other side of the girl to Narcissa, repeating the wand movements she had made earlier before making a few more complicated ones.

"I think you are correct Narcissa, but there doesn't seem to be any lasting damage; all she needs is rest, to give her body time to heal. I would suggest you move her to a bed in one of the more remote room of the manor and I will question her when she awakes. If you will permit me to stay until then? I would not feel comfortable leaving you and Draco here alone with her until we know who she is and how she got past the wards." Narcissa's eyes widened as she looked from Severus to the girl as if it hadn't even occurred to her that she might be dangerous. Severus barely managed to refrain from rolling his eyes at the woman but Narcissa didn't notice.

"Dobby, take the girl and do as Professor Snape has said. Stay with her until she wakes and come and get us when she does." Dobby nodded and disappeared with the girl, Narcissa turned to Severus again, "Would you like some breakfast while you're here? You'll have missed it at the castle by now." Severus nodded and followed her to the dining room.

Upstairs Dobby was fussing over tucking the girl into the bed, he was worried about what reaction she would have when she woke up and decided she should at least be comfortable, and securely tucked under the sheets, just in case of a bad reaction to her surroundings.


	2. Chapter 2

Remus sighed again and dragged his hands down his face, "There is nothing we can do, Harry. We cannot afford to simply raid Malfoy Manor and hope to find Hermione there." He raised a hand to stop Harry from interrupting him, "You said it yourself that Snape could find no trace of her in the manor, if he could not find trace of her ever having been there what makes you think she would be there now?"

"What if Snape was lying?" Ron burst into the conversation,

"Why in the world would Severus do that?"

"Maybe he was trying to get them out of the room to give us a chance to escape." Ron said with a shrug, he looked doubtful but he was trying his best to stay positive about the situation, even if that meant laying his trust in Severus Snape.

"So you're telling me that you really think Hermione has just been roaming free around Malfoy Manor all day?" Ron slammed his hand down on the table and glared at Fleur for her input, he opened his mouth to let his anger out on her when he caught Bill's eye and took a deep breath before speaking,

"No, I don't believe that. But I need to believe she is still there and she is safe and that we can rescue her. Malfoy didn't tell them it was Harry, maybe he's helping her; hiding her." He turned to Remus and the older man saw how much this was affecting him, "I know that we can't raid Malfoy Manor, we don't have the numbers or the resources to attack but we have to do something. Every minute she isn't with us is another minute she could be under Bellatrix's wand, if not You-Know-Who's."

~#~

Dobby jumped up onto the foot of the bed as he heard the girl starting to stir. Her eyes blinked open and she tried to put a hand up to her head, only to find that her arms were stuck by her sides under the covers of the bed Dobby had placed her in. The elf shifted into her line of sight and her eyes opened wide, "Dobby? Where am I? What's going on?" Dobby whimpered and tugged on his ear before disappearing to fetch Narcissa and Severus.

~#~

Dobby appeared back in the room while Hermione was struggling to get her arms free from the bedding she'd been rather securely tucked into; she started to level a glare at the elf before her eyes widened at the sight of Severus Snape standing with a hand on the elf's shoulder. "What are you doing here?" She started to wriggle more violently, even more desperate to escape from the bed; she had to be able to defend herself.

"Lie still you foolish child. You have been the victim of torture; I do not yet know how extensive the damage is." Hermione's struggles didn't stop; if anything the reminder of her torture only intensified her movements,

"How could you not know the extent of the torture, you were there! You watched her do it and didn't lift a finger to stop her!"

"I do not know what you are talking about; I have never set eyes on you in my life. Now if you refuse to lie still I will have to immobilise you." A look of pure confusion crossed Hermione's face but she did stop trying to escape from the sheets, "Now, I need to examine you in order to determine which potions would be best suited to healing you. For this I will need to release you from the sheets, will you agree to behave or will I have to immobilise you after all?"

"I won't try to get away." Hermione muttered, she didn't understand what was happening, how could Snape, who had been her professor for six years of her life just not remember her. She tried to think of a solution while Snape waved his wand over her doing a series of diagnostic charms, the only thing she managed to come up with was that she had been disfigured somehow and she was now unrecognisable. Suddenly something occurred to Hermione, "Why did Dobby get you instead of… well anyone else?" Snape ignored the question,

"It does not appear that there will be any lasting damage, however, I would advise you to take this potion for any muscle or joint pain caused by the curse. Sit up." Hermione frowned at the lack of an answer but she obeyed him anyway, not quite sure if it was because she was nervous of him after the previous night's events or just out of habit; she was used to obeying him in the potions classroom.

He handed her a potion, which looked like the pain potion he had mentioned, she gave it a sniff to confirm and check if there was anything wrong with it, she didn't detect anything and narrowed her eyes at the amused looking professor before gulping the potion down in one. "Wise to check but I assure you I am more than capable of adjusting a potion into something quite deadly without leaving telltale scents or obvious colour changes. Now, we need to have a little chat."

~#~

"If we are going to be able to do anything for Hermione we need to alert the rest of the order that there is a problem." Harry shook his head,

"No one can know we're here. They'll try to make me and Ron stay here. We need to get Hermione and get back to our task; there is still a lot that needs to be done and I'm not sure how much longer we have to spend on it. I did ask Bill not to contact anyone." Harry sent a glare at Ron's brother, not happy that Bill had gone against his wishes,

"I didn't contact Remus, Harry. He was as surprised to see you as you were to see him, I promise."

"He isn't lying to you Harry; I came here to share some news with Bill and Fleur. I guess the surprise of seeing you here put my reason for visiting out of my head." A soft smiled washed across Remus' face,

"What was your news Professor Lupin?" Remus looked at Luna with a smile,

"Call me Remus; I haven't been anyone's professor in years. Nymphadora had the baby; we have decided to name him Edward, for Dora's father." Remus turned to Harry amid the congratulations coming from all sides, "We would like for you to be his Godfather."

"Me? Are you sure?" Remus beamed at him,

"Of course, Dora agrees that there is nobody better."

"Well in that case, I'd be honoured Remus."

"Blimey Remus, you'd best get back to her! You've been here almost two hours already. She'll think you've run off." Harry looked awkwardly at Remus,

"I wanted to apologise for what I said at Grimmauld Place, I didn't mean it." Remus smiled,

"Yes you did Harry, but I needed to hear all of it. Ron is right though, I should get back. Don't do anything drastic, I'll be back soon and we'll figure out how to get Hermione back."

"Tell Dora congratulations for me, and say hello to my Godson."

~#~

"I suppose a good place to start would be with your name." Hermione panicked, they had found out her name the night before and that had not gone too well, but this was Professor Snape; he already knew her. "There is no point in trying to lie to me, I will know."

"Hermione Granger, Sir." Severus looked surprised but showed no signs of recognition,

"A muggle name" Hermione nodded, "How did you get into this manor?"

"This is Malfoy Manor!?" Hermione's eyes widened in panic and then the confusion settled in again, why had they put her in a bed? Why did he not react to her name?

"Indeed."

"I was brought here last night, the snatchers brought us." Hermione was watching her old professor carefully, but he remained passive.

"What, pray tell, is a snatcher? And why would they bring you here?" Hermione's brows knitted in thought, even if she had been somehow disfigured enough that Professor Snape wouldn't recognise her there was no way that he would be unaware of the taboo and the snatchers. She wasn't sure what to tell him,

"Because this is You-Know-Who's base, the snatchers thought they would get a reward for delivering us to him. I'm sorry professor but how could you possibly not know what has been happening?" Again her professor didn't answer, Hermione sighed and continued, "We broke the taboo on You-Know-Who's name and the snatchers showed up and brought us here, my two friends were put in the dungeon and Bellatrix questioned me about an item that was found with us." While she couldn't wrap her head around the idea of the new headmaster of Hogwarts not knowing what had been going on in the world it did seem that that was the case and she wasn't going to give him any details that weren't necessary to her explanation.

"There has never been a taboo on that name and even if there was it would have been broken months ago as the Dark Lord has been neutralised. How did you get in to this manor? You certainly were not brought here by anyone. Narcissa Malfoy, the mistress of this house knew nothing about you until her elf announced that there was an unconscious girl in her drawing room. Explain yourself Miss Granger."

"I don't understand what's happening Professor. I have answered your questions honestly, and I do not understand why you don't know who I am. I thought that maybe I had been disfigured somehow and you didn't recognise me but surely you would recognise the name of a student you had taught for six years." Severus' mouth came close to dropping open in shock,

"I only took up my teaching post at the beginning of the school year in September, I have not taught anyone for that length of time." Hermione's mind whirled at the implications of that information,

"P- Professor, what's the date?"

"Today is the 31st of March."

"Of what year, Professor?" Severus sighed as if he had seen her next question coming.

"1982." Hermione gasped in shock and couldn't seem to catch her breath, her eyes filled with tears and she felt herself becoming light headed. She shook her head furiously,

"No, it can't be. You must be wrong. This is all some cruel trick Bellatrix and the Malfoys have come up with! It has to be. I can't be here now. What about the war? What's going to happen?" Severus' lips pursed at the mention of Bellatrix,

"I assume you are referring to Bellatrix Lestrange and let me assure you she has been in Azkaban prison since last November and she will not be out planning pranks on unsuspecting muggle born witches any time in the near future. The war is over and has been since last Halloween. Now, if you will not calm down I shall stun you and we will continue this conversation at a later time." He drew his wand and pointed it at her chest,

"No, Professor, please. I just want to understand." Hermione needed to tell him what had happened, she needed to explain so that he could help her make sense of it. She needed his help getting back to her own time. At least she knew she could trust him now, Remus had told her that Snape changed sides before the Potters were attacked.

~#~

Remus had left hours ago but Harry, Ron, Bill, Fleur and Luna were still sitting at the table in the kitchen of Shell Cottage; Ollivander and Griphook were in bedrooms upstairs recovering enough so that they could be moved on to another safe house.

"Snape must have used a locator spell when he told Bellatrix and the Malfoys that she must have slipped the wards; that's the first thing we should try. Does anyone know how?"

"Hermione would know." Ron grumbled and Harry sent him a glare,

"If you don't have anything helpful to say maybe you just shouldn't be saying anything. Of course Hermione would know how, but the problem with that is she's the one we need the spell for."

"Yeah? And whose fault is that? I told you not to say the bloody name but you went ahead and did it anyway, didn't you. Thinking you were big and brave for saying the name, well I wasn't telling you not to say it because I'm scared of it. There was a bloody reason I told you not to say it and now look what's happened! Hermione is Merlin knows where." Bill interrupted before Harry could respond; from the look on Harry's face he was about to say something he would regret,

"Maybe it would be best if we all got some rest, I know of a couple of locator spells which could work but I'll need a couple of hours to research them, until then there really isn't anything we can do. You've both been awake for at least 24 hours, go and sleep." Bill gave the two boys a stern look when they looked like they were going to argue with him, they both started to mutter under their breath but they did make a move towards the camp beds in the living room.

"Mr Weasley, could we ask Dobby to go and look for Hermione at Malfoy Manor? He used to work for the Malfoys; he might know where to look for her." With that Luna wandered off to her own camp bed in the living room. Fleur came around the table and took hold of one of Bill's hands, her husband sighed,

"I don't think I'll ever quite get used to her. But I can't see Harry wanting to send Dobby back to the manor, by all accounts his time there wasn't happy and it could be dangerous for him to go back. I need to look up those spells."

~#~

Severus nodded, agreeing not to stun her for the time being. "I think you had better explain yourself Miss Granger, in full." Hermione swallowed thickly and nodded, still unsure whether she could trust him but not having much of a choice.

"Last night I was on the run from You-Know-Who with two of my friends, we had just been reunited and we were discussing plans when one of them used _his_ name without realising it had been cursed. I assume the theory behind the curse was that only his opposition would dare to use the name and would therefore lead the snatchers right to the people they were hunting so that they could be taken to the ministry and dealt with accordingly. It worked and we were picked up by a group of them and brought here-"

"Ignoring, for now, the fact that I know for a fact that the Dark Lord has been defeated, if these snatchers were bringing people to the ministry why were you brought here?" Hermione got the distinct impression he was simply humouring her but not actually believing a word she was saying.

"Because of whom they thought one of my friends was."

"And who did they think he was?"

"Harry Potter." Severus' eyes widened,

"What was yesterday's date?"

"The 30th of March, Sir." Severus glared at her,

"What year?" Hermione sighed,

"1998, Sir." Severus' eyes widened and his mouth actually did drop open with shock,

"How could that be? Did you use a time turner?" Hermione shook her head, her eyes filling with tears again,

"I don't know Sir. I have no idea how I ended up here."

"Tell me the rest of your story." Hermione did so and Severus didn't speak again until she was finished,

"There is a certain spell that springs to mind. You say I was there when you were brought to the manor?" Hermione nodded, "Are you aware of any such spell?"

"No, Professor. I've never read about anything like that, I read a lot about time travel in my third year; I used a time turner to take more classes than should have fitted into the timetable, so of course I did a lot of research and the only method of travel I came across was time turners." Severus nodded,

"It is possible that I kept the success of the spell to myself, if I was indeed successful in its manufacture. If the Dark Lord did truly return he may have given the task to someone else, there is a chance that I was not trusted-" he seemed to realise what he was saying and abruptly stopped, "Yes, well it would appear that someone has been successful. If you are sure you did nothing which would result in your presence here then it is the only theory I have."

~#~

Bill turned at the sound of the kitchen door opening again, "Come to bed, my love. There is nothing more you can do tonight; you need sleep as well." Bill sighed; he had been searching for a strong and specific locator spell which would allow them to quickly find and retrieve Hermione but everything he had found that seemed promising required the blood of the person they were trying to locate.

"I need to have a plan when they wake up, you know Harry and Ron, they don't tend to make plans; they just run off with on a mission and really they just get lucky in the moment. I'm worried that if I don't have something solid to give them they'll just leave in the morning with some half baked plan to rescue Hermione from the Malfoys." Fleur lifted his hand and slipped under his arm to settle herself in his lap, pulling his head to rest on her shoulder she stroked his hair back from his face and waiting for him to return her embrace before she spoke,

"I think you need to have more faith in those boys; I do not believe they have gotten this far and accomplished all that they have without some fore planning, it just wouldn't be possible." Bill tightened his arms around her waist,

"Hermione made all their plans for them, but I suppose you're right. Maybe some of her common sense has managed to rub off on the two of them over the years. I'll be of no use to them tomorrow if I don't get some sleep."

~#~

Harry rolled onto his back when he heard a door close somewhere above him; he hadn't been able to get to sleep, he kept hearing Hermione's screams and her voice begging for the pain to stop. He knew from the quietness of the room that Ron was also awake, he didn't know whether or not Luna had managed to get to sleep or not. "We have to save her." He didn't say it to either of his friends in particular,

"But how do we do that? If Bill hasn't managed to find anything useful what are we supposed to do?"

~#~

Hermione took a deep breath as Severus lead to towards the sitting room where she would be meeting the mistress of the house. She had been unable to give him a satisfactory explanation as to why the future Severus Snape would have sent her into the past; he had not accepted her feeble reasoning that maybe he just couldn't stand seeing her being tortured for answers she didn't have. Severus had come up with a story which would explain how she had come to be in the manor and would give her a reason to continue to reside there for the immediate future; until he was able to find a way to send her back to her own time.

Severus had had a hard time convincing her of some of the aspects of the story, such as her purpose for being sent into the past. She also wasn't sure that telling the wife, sister and mother of known deatheaters that the Dark Lord would indeed return was a good idea but Severus assured her it was necessary.


End file.
